A typical wireless network includes a number of base stations each radiating to provide coverage in which to serve wireless communication devices (WCDs) such as cell phones, tablet computers, tracking devices, embedded wireless modules, and other wirelessly equipped devices. In turn, each base station may be coupled with network infrastructure that provides connectivity with one or more transport networks, such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and/or the Internet for instance. With this arrangement, a WCD within coverage of the wireless network may engage in air interface communication with a base station and may thereby communicate via the base station with various remote network entities or with other WCDs served by the base station.
Further, a wireless network may operate in accordance with a particular air interface protocol (i.e., radio access technology), with communications from the base stations to WCDs defining a downlink or forward link and communications from the WCDs to the base stations defining an uplink or reverse link. Examples of existing air interface protocols include, without limitation, wireless wide area network (WWAN) protocols such as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA (e.g., Long Term Evolution (LTE) and Wireless Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX)), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) (e.g., 1×RTT and 1×EV-DO), and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), and wireless local area network (WLAN) protocols such as IEEE 802.11 (WIFI), BLUETOOTH, and others. Each protocol may define its own procedures for registration of WCDs, initiation of communications, handover between coverage areas, and other functions related to air interface communication.
A base station may communicate with WCDs over an air interface and may communicate with entities in the wireless network via a backhaul connection. The backhaul connection could be either wired or wireless. In some instances, a base station with a wireless backhaul connection may be a “relay base station” that communicates with entities in the wireless network via a wireless link to a “donor base station” in the wireless network. The relay base station uses the wireless link to relay communications between WCDs and the donor base station.
The use of relay base stations can be transparent to the WCDs. In particular, a WCD may not adjust its behavior or method of operation depending on whether the WCD is being served by a relay base station or a non-relay base station of a wireless network. In fact, the WCD may not even have information as to whether it is being served by a relay base station or a non-relay base station.